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The first vertebra of the neck, articulating immediately with the skull, thus sustaining the globe of the head, whence the name.

and motion accounted thus for the origin and formation of all things. This philosophy was first broached by Leucippus, was developed by Democritus, and afterward improved by Epicurus, and hence is sometimes denominated the Epicurean philosophy. -- Atomic theory, or the Doctrine of definite proportions (Chem.), teaches…

The beginner, former, or first mover of anything; hence, the efficient cause of a thing; a creator; an originator. Eternal King; thee, Author of all being. Milton.

nsmitted, no other alarm, sent in from another point, will be transmitted until after the first alarm has been disposed of.

the point of the equator intersected by the ecliptic, as the sun proceeds southward; the first point of Libra. -- ~= signs, the signs Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius, through which the sun passes between the ~ equinox and winter solstice.

n shall they seek to avail themselves of names. Milton. I have availed myself of the very first opportunity. Dickens.

A kind of glass, containing gold-colored spangles. It was produced in the first place by the accidental (par aventure) dropping of some brass filings into a pot of melted glass.

A self-evident and necessary truth, or a proposition whose truth is so evident as first sight that no reasoning or demonstration can make it plainer; a proposition which it is necessary to take for granted; as, "The whole is greater than a part;" "A thing can not, at the same time, be and not be."

of the body only of the vertebra, which is prolonged anteriorly within the foramen of the first vertebra or atlas, so as to form the odontoid process or peg which serves as a pivot for the atlas and head to turn upon.

The first principle of metals, i. e., mercury, which was formerly supposed to exist in all metals, and to be extractable from them.

The degree of bachelor of arts. (B.A. or A.B.), the first or lowest academical degree conferred by universities and colleges.

A person who has taken the first or lowest degree in the liberal arts, or in some branch of science, at a college or university; as, a bachelor of arts.

retreat or withdraw from a promise, engagement, or contest; to recede. [Colloq.] Cleon at first . . . was willing to go; but, finding that he [Nicias] was in earnest, he tried to back out. Jowett (Thucyd. )

In the game of backgammon, to beat by ending the game before the loser is clear of his first "table".

A large stick of wood, forming the of a fire on the hearth. [U.S.] There was first a backlog, from fifteen to four and twenty inches in diameter and five feet long, imbedded in the ashes. S. G. Goodrich.

d, water, and forage increases the difficulty of traversing the country, whence the name, first given by the Canadian French, Mauvaises Terres (bad lands).

ears momentarily like a row of bright spots resembling a string of beads. The phenomenon (first fully described by Francis Baily, 1774 -- 1844) is thought to be an effect of irradiation, and of inequalities of the moon's edge.

In France, a second ballot taken after an indecisive first ballot to decide between two or several candidates.

The first word in certain mnemonic lines which represent the various forms of the syllogism. It indicates a syllogism whose three propositions are universal affirmatives. Whately.

h contrary to the pure idioms of a particular language. See Solecism. The Greeks were the first that branded a foreign term in any of their writers with the odious name of barbarism. G. Campbell.